Tonight, the opposition UDP is in - what one old politician would call - "a state of dynamic ferment."
When we left you last night it was with a missive from the so called "UDP Caucus for Change" an ad hoc group of former candidates, and aspiring candidates who seem to want to change one thing only: and that's their leader Patrick Faber. Their release layered in on Faber for the recent video showing him caught up in a domestic dispute.
Their release said, quote, "our Caucus believes that the Party Leader has lost the trust of the Belizean people as well as a majority of constituency leaders and is now incapable of uniting the Party and leading us to victory in any future election.
We have therefore initiated a petition drive among the five hundred and thirty Party delegates for the recall of the Party Leader." End quote.
That was followed a few hours later by an official UDP release saying, quote, "...contrary to erroneous claims from unauthorized sources, the Honorable Patrick Faber remains the duly elected leader of the Party.
The UDP's Leadership Core indeed convened a meeting between 4:00 pm and 6:00 pm yesterday, where the Party Leader went into great details about an incident regarding personal domestic and family matters. At no point in the meeting, however, was any request made for our Party Leader to step aside."
Well, by this morning there were strong suggestions that he should, starting with a Facebook post from elected representative Shyne Barrow. His post says, quote, "I am encouraged by Patrick's apology, however we as a Party & Parliamentarians must now deliberate if an apology is enough or are their further corrective measures that need to take place to treat a problem that persists and send a clear message to the public that the UDP will not tolerate certain actions especially from our Party Leader….we must not defend the indefensible or excuse the inexcusable." End quote.
Of course, Shyne Barrow himself has been in that same indefensible position months ago when he wife made a police complaint that he had kicked her in the back. To this, he says, quote, "I categorically condemn any act of violence against Women…We have all fallen short in life, including myself. Correcting our errors is the key to redemption and transformation however when repeat our errors we must accept we have a problem and seek help."
And, a few hours ago, fellow parliamentarian Tracy Panton made her own post saying, quote, "We need to condemn, in the harshest terms, any acts of abuse against another person. While we hold perpetrators to account, we must find meaningful ways to support victims and provide help for perpetrators to rehabilitate….Violence of any kind: physical, emotional, verbal is everybody's business…I call for greater advocacy for and more urgent solutions to acts of violence and aggression against women in particular."
And while she didn't name Faber, the suggestion is clear that his domestic disputes are a problem.
So, what are they going to do about it? Well, it seems the time for talking is over. Reports suggest that there is an effort in the UDP to orchestrate a sort of palace coup and remove Faber as Leader of the opposition in the Parliament. To do this, they would only need three of the opposition's five members to write the Governor General saying he no longer enjoys their support. In his place, the plan would be to name Tracy Taegar Panton as parliamentary leader of the opposition. Faber would remain party leader nominally.
These are reports from deep within the UDP tonight, but things are expected to Connie to take shape over the next few days.
